The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 486 - The Texas Prison Situation

Episode Date: June 22, 2021

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine Frances Jalet vs the Texas Department of Corrections.SourcesTour DatesRedbubble Merch

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bilingual American History podcast for each week. I, Dave Anthony, read a story from American History to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. One of the, one of those, it's one of those. Just want to start out by saying that you did not wish me a happy Father's Day. I'm sorry Papa. Papa, happy Father's Day. Well now it seems. Oh don't, don't do this daddy. So here's what my son got me which he was so, so thrilled. There's a new kind of underwear out there. Oh boy. They've made, they've made an advancement in underwear according to them. Uh-huh. They are, they have a, they have a ball pocket

to put your, so they're like tennis shorts? So in the front there's a little, what do you mean pocket? Gareth, there's a little place to put your balls in the underwear. You put your balls in a separate underwear compartment? Oh my lord. Oh my god, so it is like a cup. Essentially your balls are like the cup. And their reasoning for this is, is because your balls will sag if you don't do that. You're gonna, over time you'll get sahee balls and this is the, this is the answer. You know we've all known balls to always be really taught. No, but this is, this is how, yeah, finally we have a bra. At some point you've got to

ask yourself what kind of life do you want to live? And, and what kind of concessions are you willing to make for these things of this nature? But I can tell you a 12 year old boy likes nothing more than to watch his father open up a brand new pair of ball-saving underwear. That's from both of us. That's from both of us. Oh, thank you. I appreciate everything that you do and thank you. Finn didn't like it. Oh jeez. The irony. And called it, quote, his jam-pad. Jam-pad? I'm the fucking hippo guy. My name's Gary. My name's Gary. Wait. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna come to Tickly Podcast. Okay. Now hit him with the puppy. You both present sick arguments. No sleep, no hippo. That's like no hippo. Actually, partner. Hi, Gary. No. I sleep done, my friend. No, no.

You're wearing a shirt I got you. I got you that shirt. 1939. Fred Cruz was born in San Antonio, Texas. Okay. Some of the San Antonio's. He was a Mexican American and had a difficult childhood. Growing up in a very segregated west side. His early years really hardened him. His father bailed. He lived in a kind of place where you joined a gang or you got fucked, basically. So he joined the Mirosols and he wore zutsuits with suspenders, did the whole thing. Okay. Jumping in. We're jumping in. There's a lot happening right away. All right. Dropped out of school in the eighth grade. Great. He had a few relatives who sold drugs. His brother Frank would be killed by cops during a robbery. Now, by the time his brother Frank was killed by cops, Fred was already in jail for selling pot. Okay. Right. And he had become addicted to heroin. So. Jeez. Good Lord. Came in hot. Yeah, came in hot. What do you let? Do you want to take a five? I'm exhausted.

So 1967 Fred was in the middle of a 15 year sentence for trying to rob an ice house. That's I mean, you know, we're gonna melt. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, you see the money that's temporary frozen water makes and yeah, you can't walk past that. Yeah, your eyes, your eyes turned into dollar bill signs. You've got a plan. We're talking frozen ice. I swear to God, this used to be ice. I don't know what happened. So he was in the Ellis unit, which is was at the time the toughest prison in the Texas prison system, which is I mean, you know, that's not a good thing to hear. Yeah, when the gold in Texas for that is here's something you're competing among the best of the best. But now Fred Fred became very intellectually curious. He started reading philosophy, started reading about yoga and reading legal theory books. And then he found his way to Buddhism and he became a Buddhist. Okay. Now in November of 67 he was in the hole again, which happened quite a bit to Fred solitary was used very often in Texas prisons to control prisoners and in Ellis solitary was absolutely the worst place to be. Yeah, I will we've talked before about how it's just a super cool. It's torture in most countries. It's it's not legal. But don't worry about America. You got this cells were so dark that prisoners eyes would ache after a while.

Oh my God, what? Now I have I have blackout curtains. Yeah. And I've done a good 12 hours. And you're just, yeah, so I get it. Right. Well, sort of. I mean, I sleep and I do, you know, what I get, you can have water. Sometimes they would only get a blanket. Okay, no clothes, no mattress, no toilet, there's a hole in the floor, no toilet, no toilet, just hole in the floor, three slices. As a whole, whole as a whole, the holes, the holes got a hole has some rights. Yeah. They get three slices of bread a day. Oh, because for a while, this was sounding like bullshit. Yeah, no, I didn't know that could get three pieces of bread a day. Yeah, cakewalk. Yeah. I mean, let's ease up on the pampering, shall we? Oh, man, I can you imagine, like, I mean, what are you, you're so hungry that like a piece of bread, you're like, thank God. I would send it back and ask for sourdough. I'm sorry, could I have the right to have any cinnamon raisin?

Sir, sir, I know you're trying to teach me a lesson, but have a heart. I just want a little sourdough. So they would only get a full meal twice a week. What the fuck. Then after two weeks, an outer door would be open and a little light would come in. This was there. This was technically they considered that a release. But so they're free range is what we would call for their free range. And then the warden are one of the officers who come in and they check on your attitude. See how your attitude was probably really good. I mean, look, you've been in a hole with a hole with a blanket and three pieces of bread a day. You're probably going to be at a good spot. You get some questioning. If you didn't respond the way they wanted, it would be back into the hole in the darkness for two weeks. They just closed the door. Oh, God. Can you imagine how you have to react?

Hi, how are you? How are you doing, guys? You want to kick me in the face? You can kick me in the face. I'm here for it. Come on. Hey, tell me. Hey, I'm sorry. I don't remember what it was. I feel terrible. Yeah, whatever I did was bad. You're right. You're great. I call you God. I say God to you. I mean, honestly. Fred was better at most than at getting through solitary. But still, some days in there, he wished he would just die. He's like, just, you know, let me die. In November, he's in the hole. And at this point, he's there for sitting in the wrong seat on trucks that were headed out to work in the Cainfields, right? So all the prisoners get in the trucks in the morning, get Cainfields. One prisoner is like, hey, sit next to me, buddy. So he does.

And then the guard's like, what the fuck are you doing? I was worried that they were going to be overusing the abuse there. But clearly they're saving it for real situations. He said to the guard, quote, personally, I'm not particularly about which trailer I go to work in. And that was that was considered a blatant challenge to authority. So they just didn't like him. And I mean, he just the guard yelled at him, quote, you're not going to take over my squad. You aren't going to run anything while you are working under me. So the guard was one of those rational people who he was. It's like who you want in positions of authority. Well, what do you do if someone sits where they want to sit? I freak out. Yeah, I try to kill them.

That's right. I will attempt to kill them. So that night when he comes in from working in the fields, there's a big group of dudes, the officials and the assistant warden are all waiting for him. And they and they hear what the guard says and they give him a punishment and the punishment is he's going to have to shell a gallon of peanuts by hand. And that would take most of the night. And then at the end of showing a gallon of peanuts, his fingers would be raw at the end because it's just it's salted brutal. I mean, you do it by hand. Yeah. So Fred Fred says, well, don't I get to defend myself? Now, he knows this is going to make it worse.

Right. But he's like, don't I get to defend myself? And that explains calmly, as he was very known to do at this point. He had taken many beatings over the years in prison. He never changed. He was that guy who just didn't give in. Right. He was a writer, Ethan Waters in Texas Monthly Quote, Fred Cruz was only 27, but he had the sort of inner strength that could unnerve those charged with keeping him in line. Right. So they were just totally threatened by him. He's got he's got the he carries himself in a way that is a threat.

Right. Just by the way he is. Right. So like you. He wants to know what rule he broke. Right. Well, that's a little that's a little crazy, isn't it? I mean, come on. What an asshole. And then he says, I want a fair hearing and then I want to appeal on this punishment you just gave me.

You're going to appeal a bunch of potatoes if you keep going. And they said, yeah, they're like, yeah, OK, when you're out of solitary. Interesting, interesting negotiation. Not a lot of people will hold the trial after the sentence, but it's good to see that they can bend the rules in that fashion. Interesting. That's very. I didn't I didn't realize the malleability of the punishment system and. Yeah, yeah, you can totally incarcerated. Yeah, you can punish people and then afterwards be like, so what was your. I mean, that's one of those deals that I feel like I take and then be like, wait a second. All right. Well, you can you will hear you out after a couple of weeks in the hall and then we'll see if you should be punished, sir.

That that's very fair. Yeah. Wait a second. Hold on. Bullshit. So his file after this incident said, quote, in subordination, refused peanuts. Well, you know, that's you don't want nobody wants to refuse peanuts on their permanent record. That's refused peanuts. So his file is like full of ridiculous charges like that. He'd been given the rail at one time, which was standing for days on the two inch side of a six by two board.

Oh, what? Yeah, that seems impotent. That's like David Blaine shit. I tried to imagine how that's possible, but that's what they gave as a regular punishment. If somebody told me to stand for two days, I'd be like, that's not possible. That is not going to happen. I can't do that. What are you talking about? He got that punishment because he, quote, started chasing an armadillo while he was out working in the fields. How do you how do you not chase an armadillo?

I thought it's a human. Isn't the Texas flag a guy chasing an armadillo? Yeah, you should be like, there they go. That's the only thing they're allowed to do. What are you supposed to do? Just live in this armadillo armageddon, this armadillo get in and just allow these people to just run rampant while you just sit there and do nothing. Look, this is America. God damn it. If I see an armadillo, I'm allowed to go chasing. I'm going.

So the prison system had labeled Fred as a, quote, hardened incorrigible with an 87 IQ and an extremely poor prospect for rehabilitation. And a real aversion to peanut work. So that's how he's treated, right? They're like, he's dumb. He's never going to change. He's nothing's happened with this guy. But a psychologist wrote that he was intelligent, suspicious, hostile to authority and had leadership potential. If prison officials didn't keep Fred in check, he would, quote, most certainly be a disturbing influence. Oh, well, well, well. That's in the secret file. But if he goes to court, they see the hardened, unable to rehabilitate dumb.

But in the other file that the prison warden see it's like this guy, you want to keep this guy. Just keep your eyes open and do not bring peanuts around this guy. He's a real jerk off when it comes to peanuts. So as the psychologist said, he's sure enough, he starts studying the law. Okay. And so he doesn't have heroin or booze in his life now. So he's very focused. He starts reading textbooks. He starts reading Supreme Court opinions. He reads the Bill of Rights, the Constitution.

And he starts appealing his case saying that his lawyer was bad. It's hard to pass that case on to your lawyer. There's another case I was wondering if you could work on for me. I'm trying to get someone as good to be in your shoes. So if you could just kind of, do you know what I'm saying? You want me to just take a look at it? Well, I mean, basically just, you know, I want, I need to get you off of my case. So the case I need you to go fight for is to get yourself removed from this.

Yeah, I don't care. That's great. You're not very good and haven't been good. Have you seen the name of my law firm? Whatever? Law? Yep. Yeah, it was a red flag. It was a red flag. Yeah, it's our philosophy. But again, remember, I didn't want you, the judge gave you to me. No, that's what I'm saying. And you've been really just dog shit. So like if you can get as advertised, get yourself off the case. Yeah, what? Yeah, well, exactly. That's the whole thing.

So yeah, that'd be great if you could do that because that's really, I mean, it's cool. I just don't know how to do the paperwork for that. Well, I mean, again, like I'm just that like this, this would be the great like, well, we know more, please just, you know, fucking do it because you've been, you know, just really the worst the whole way. It's just, yeah, whatever. Yeah, I know, of course. Well, our time's up, but this is really good. But I don't feel like we didn't solve anything. Thank you for, I guess I came. I guess I came because you're important. Yeah, right.

I do not remember how, what was your? The case? Yeah, what was your name? The thing? Frank? Yeah. Okay, see you later. Good working with you. Yeah, great. That's the bathroom. Um, so like he's studying the law, other inmates take notice. Now prisoners who studied and understood the legal system were called writ writers in prison. Uh-huh. But giving other prisoners legal help was forbidden. Man, you know, the, you know, it's illegal to feed someone else's parking meter.

Yes. It's like those things. We're just like, what? Why? Fuck off. Like, you cannot, like, don't tell me how our little, you know, there's no, there should be no leak, leak, illegality based around helping other people. Excuse me. You're not advising that other one who didn't read the constitution. Are you? That's not allowed. The idea is that everyone's fucked. Don't learn. Learning hurts. Learning hurts. Guys, look at the sign. Learning hurts. I can tell you exactly how the, uh, the meter thing happened.

There, there was probably a guy who was getting a ticket and then it was like, Oh really? Well, fuck you. And he had a bunch of quarters pocket. And he just started walking down the street in front of the meter maid, just putting money in. I'm sure that happened like a bunch of times. Yeah. Well, it's just the craziest. It's again, it's like, what do you care? What is the point? Is the point to have the meters fed? It feels like it's more money. So, right. So, so prisoners in the Texas prison system are not allowed to have legal books or, or legal documents in their cell.

So you can't have anything that has to do with even your own case. They could not talk. They could not talk about legal issues. Good Lord. Don't you understand the rules of your Foxville? If any of that happened, they'd be thrown on the whole. What? That is so crazy. But Fred is interested in the law. So he keeps getting thrown in the hole for having books and documents. Wow.

He went to the hole once, and this is the greatest. He went to the hole for having a copy of the constitution. Well, I mean, oh my Lord, how do you, how do you square that? That sums up America so beautifully. Yeah. Yeah. What are you, what are you in the hole for? Learning about my rights. So they were furious that I was learning what they couldn't do to me. So they did it.

Now, you best get those thoughts out of your head, boy. You unlearn that as soon as possible now. Now Francis Gillette was a graduate of Columbia Law School. She graduated in 1937, but she was a woman. So there's no work for her. I thought the name sounded a little telling. There's no work for her as a lawyer. Everyone's like, cool, you got a degree.

All right. All right. You ready to be a mom? Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. So she got married. She had five kids. She taught, she taught school. Her husband got into a plane crash at one point and he lived, but he changed. He started drinking. He was very volatile. And he was eventually taken away in a straight jacket.

Jesus. Okay. So he started wrapped up really quick. Yeah. That was fun. What a good run he had in this little tale. In 1954, Francis moved to D.C. She got a job at the American Association of University Women. And in 1959, she became a staff attorney on the New York Law Revision Commission. And in 1967, a new federal program was created to get lawyers to work in poverty law.

Right. So she gets involved in that program. And that summer she heads to Texas. She's now 56 years old. The Austin American statesman ran a short profile about this weird middle-aged woman who wanted to help poor people and came to Texas to do it. Well, well, and the kooky pages, we've got a fun story for you this week. A woman wants to help the poor.

Now I've heard it all. My regular column, what's happening with the freaks? What's up? Oh, I just can imagine how that, I would love to have been able to find that article. If white laughter could be harnessed for energy. So Fred ends up reading the article and then he writes a letter to her and he asks her for help. But she's not a criminal court. That's not her thing.

She's doing this other stuff. So it's not really part of her job description. So she decides to come on her own and meet with them just to talk to them and see what's up. He's not at all what she expects. He's sad. He's very kind. He speaks very softly. And then...

You better watch out. That attitude is going to get him thrown in the hall. Got it. Murder him. So she agrees to advise him and type up any briefs he has. But she's like, I can't represent you as an attorney because it's not my thing and also it's not what I'm supposed to be doing for my job. And then they get along really well. They end up talking for a while.

They talk about family's religion, how he educated himself in jail, and they talk for like an hour. Get along really great. Now, George Beto is the director of the Texas Department of Corrections, which I'll call the TDC. And he's there. He happens to be at the prison when she visits. Okay. And he's like, hey, why don't you come on up and talk with me in the warden? Because he sees...

Yeah. Oh, here's the do-gooder. Yeah. Do-gooder here. Why don't you come upstairs so me and the warden can condescend you for about 45 minutes if that's possible. Come up a room, have a nice condescension with you if that's possible. You understand, you're sniffing around the wrong problem. You can't just come in here and try to change the system like that, okay?

Yeah, you don't know. You don't know what you're doing, what you can stop here. You think you know it all just because you got a degree, which has a lot of education. But let me tell you something you don't have. Testicles. And that's all that matters. Mm-hmm. Now, the warden is Carl Luther Beartrax McAdams.

What? Okay, sure. Uh-huh. And then why don't we also just toss a Beartrax in there? That's good, honey. That's good. Do you have any birth certificates with a line that drops down? We're going to need to add a couple names here because my wife had a fantastic idea.

We want to get Beartrax in the full name. It was his nickname. It's not his real name. I think it's because he's so huge, I think. Okay. They're both him and George Beto are giant. Okay. Beto is six-four.

I mean, they're really big dudes. Okay. Beto is also an ordained Lutheran minister, but he would sell himself as like, look, I'm a minister and I'm a very enlightened director of the prison system. I care about the prisoners. That's how he'd sell himself to the people. I can't believe there was a time where religion veiled flaws. I cannot imagine.

Now, Beartrax McAdams was also huge and he was fucking brutal. Sure. The Houston Chronicle wrote, he was, quote, a big man with a velvet voice, a cherub's face who, despite the punch, could move like a mongoose when there is trouble brewing. Is that like prison porn? I don't know. I don't know. What kind of?

I don't know. What? Like, why? He's got a velvety voice and a cherubic face, but that punch will throw you off this athlete. Oh, he can pounce. This big man can pounce. Is it just me or are his movements mongoosean? What a crazy, imagine being an editor and being like, yep, no notes.

No notes. We're going to run this today. That sounds like a warden to me. I get it. Yeah, we've got a big baby whose name is Beartrax with a gut who moves like an animal. Perfect. Well, Beartrax immediately hated Francis. She said, quote, I wonder, I can't imagine.

I get the compassionate vibe. He said, quote, if you dreamed of a witch, that's exactly what she looked like. Wow. All right. Now, Beto, Beto takes a different tag. He tries to charm Francis. So they do good cop jerk off cop. Yeah.

Well, he knew how to like show people like her what he wanted them to see in the print. You have to excuse my partner here. He's just a little bit of a mongoose. And you're a bit of a snake. Yeah. So the media loves Beto. He could do no wrong. And he told Francis the prisoners knew how to con civilians, especially ones like Fred Cruz.

Here's how I'm going to condescend you a little bit differently than the man over here. He didn't want her being worked by a quote, non conformist. He didn't bring up the Constitution or anything. Did he? Oh, we had trouble with that one there. Oh, Constitution. After he says that he's a non conformist, Francis responded quote, is being a non conformist a bad thing. Oh, my God.

Who are you like careful? Come on. You don't want to be in the snake pit asking, do they like to bite? Well, we got a woman for the ditch. I mean, these guys imagine like, is there a problem with non conformity? Lock that door, close that window. Is something wrong with this woman? Ma'am, are you all right?

Obviously not good. But also Beto's not worried because this is a middle aged lady lawyer. Like the last thing he'd ever be concerned about. Right. He's also one of the most powerful men in Texas. Okay, good. There's 14 prisons. There's 12,000 prisoners.

There's a thousand acres of farmland. He supports tons of businesses because that's a giant agribusiness. The prisons don't need much funding because he's creating money and like the cotton that they grow, they turn it to clothes for the prisoners using prison labor to make it. Like it's all, it just takes care of itself. It is amazing how the U.S. economy has been able to shift. It just is always amazing anyway. 15,000 cattle or 70,000 hogs, 112,000 chickens.

It's just a giant machine. And the 13th amendment of the U.S. allows slavery as a punishment for crime. It's what we call three card monty, but when it comes to slavery. So he legally controls slaves basically. And he's not just big in Texas, but all over the country. In 1970, he was the president of the American Correctional Association, he makes speeches all over the U.S. and all over the world. He travels around the world giving speeches as an expert on prisons.

Good, good, good. So Francis and Fred start writing to each other a few times a week and more and more as time goes by. Sensors read every letter. Nothing can get through. And some don't come, right? Some letters don't even make it. On December 11, 1967, Fred got put in solitary for sharing Buddhist materials. God, what is he going to learn?

You cannot help that. You can't do anything. He helps shrink their brains, Fred. What are you doing? I love the Buddhism, which is just like the. If you were a prison, a person overseeing a prison, you'd be like, great Buddhism, great. Yes, you absolutely should be. You're right.

Very like, yeah, but instead you're like, Buddhism, you want some peace and tranquility? Go to the hole. So when he gets out, Bear Tracks tells him if he keeps writing for other prisoners, he would go to the hole indefinitely. Oh my God. So Francis is visiting also as much as he can. And the more she learns about prison, the more she's like, holy shit, this place is just fucked. Yeah. And being punished for Buddhism was that's about as obvious as the violation.

Seems like the constitutional rights are pretty basic. You get to practice religion. Practice, not perfect. Other prisoners start meeting with Francis. There was a black Muslim prisoner, Bobby Brown. He it's a different one. It's not. I'm trying to get humping around to happen in this prison and they won't let me.

He but he got put in the hole for practicing his faith. And then a guy named Ronald Novak had mental health issues. So bad he would have hallucinations and he kept being put into solitary and beaten. Surely that was helping with the mental issues. Yeah. He also had a right. He did try to escape once and got caught. So I wonder why.

What was what was not working about the situation? I don't know. I didn't like it there. It seems really great. It's a great place. It's like college, essentially. So Francis starts writing up a document that she called the Ellis report. And it's basically just a big attack on the prison.

She writes up all the stories she was being told about inmates standing on rails, being hung from bars and straight jackets, beatings with baseball bats and brass knuckles. Bear tracks often not only took part, but was the first one to get in on the beatings and whatever else. Sure. One prisoner had to shell peanuts with that velvety voice. No, swoon.

Oh, it's like watching Bobby Darren kick someone's ass. It's just one prisoner had to shell peanuts for five days straight. What is what? What is what's the peanut situation? His fingers were so bad he tried to kill himself by slashing his wrists. Oh, my God, with what? Peanuts? A peanut, maybe?

I cannot imagine. I mean, that is so fucked up. Even if you believe in, I mean, yeah, I mean, it's so obvious, but it's like if you believe in correction, how do you think this is any way rehabilitative? And obviously they don't. This is just how you say it. Well, they don't.

Yes, but it's just like the absurdity of what is the point of, like the idea that everyone is oblivious, that this person's being celebrated for things where you're like, no, this is like the whole point of this should be to correct. I mean, they call it Department of Corrections. That's not what it is though, right? No, it's for the fucking Hague. They transferred slavery to prisons,

and this is how they keep control just like they did back in the day. And like if there's profit, then who gives a shit? So there were also guys called building tenders, right? So building tenders are prisoners who tend to the building. Okay. They are allowed to have weapons because they would attack other inmates that the guards wanted tuned up. So the guards would be like,

I need you to take down that guy and they would beat the shit out of him for the guards. So fucked up. And then in turn, the building tenders got tons of power. Francis wrote, quote, building tenders are henchmen of the establishment and have authority to harass and tim date and even to beat possibly kill prisoners. Yeah, they made a mini America. So this is one way that Beto ran ran his prisons.

Cheap was he didn't need to hire guards. Yeah, because the prisoners were overseeing the prisoners. Man, oh, man. And keeping them alive. That doesn't cost a cent. You just give them some weapons as a privilege and you're good to go. And some of the bill, the building tenants had had authority over lower guards. Oh my God, that's a tough situation for you.

The whole thing's fucked up. But if you're an actual hired guard, you're like, listen, I don't feel comfortable having this prisoner. Tell me what to, he's cleaning his toilet. That's right. Clean it good now. So Francis finishes the report. She sends copies to state agencies, civil rights groups. Sure.

And Beto hears about it or reads it. And he complains to her boss at the legal aid office in Austin. And her boss immediately takes all of her cases away. So she's got nothing to do. Good, good. And then she calls up the home office back east and they're like, okay, we'll move you out of there and they move her to a poverty law center in Dallas. Okay.

Six months later, Beto calls that boss. And then that boss tells her to stop going to the prisons. He's like, you're forbidden from going to the prisons. And she's like, no. Right. I'm not doing that. And then her and her boss start fighting all the time. And by fighting, I mean screaming in the office at each other.

Okay. It didn't help their boss like to drink at lunch. Sure. No, no, no. I've always found a wet lunch loosens the arguments up a little bit in the afternoon. Just, I don't know what it is about getting hammered. That makes you a rationally argue. So he then writes an official demo.

There was a good phase in this country. I mean, a wet lunch was pretty regular. I mean, right? It was like getting. It was super common. Right. Super common. I just can't imagine like being able to.

Work and at your lunch, just have like gin. America basically come back. America was shitfaced at 3pm every day. Basically is how like the 60s were like it was in the 70s. Like just crazy. God, I really definitely feel like I fit into that era. Oh yeah. For sure.

I had a crushed it. If there, if we go back to the time where you're smoking cigarettes indoors, you're drinking hard alcohol with your BLT or whatever greasy fucking, you know, meal you're having. A lude. Pop a lude, you know. I love that your greasiest meal is a BLT. Like your greasiest meal just includes like tomatoes and lettuce.

Yeah, but mayo. Like a giant burger. A giant cheeseburger. Well, yeah, that's. Dave, let's run it back. You know, you're just sitting there. You're having a big greasy fuck off burger. You know what I mean?

Something with chicken in it too. And maybe a fish patty and some bacon. Just dripping to shit with a bunch of chili fries. You know what I mean, Dave? Yeah, or like a shiitake mushroom sandwich. Shut the fuck up, asshole. So a handful of M&Ms. So her and her boss are fighting and then her boss like writes an official memo

to block her from entering prisons. So as her boss, you are forbidden this memo. And I love it. I love in the places where the freedom of the country represents the most to people. It's like the least given. Of course. So Beto gets a copy of that memo and now he feels he has a reason to block her from entering the prisons.

He's like, well, her boss doesn't want her doing it. So I'll use this. And he has her taken off the visiting list and correspondence lists. But she's now officially the lawyer of Fred, Bobby Brown, and Novak, right? Right. So she's being forbidden from communicating with her clients. Clients. Right.

So she files an injunction in a restraining order against Beto and her boss and her boss. Good. Good. God. So you know, not enough people file restraining orders against their boss. That is the way if your boss is up your ass, the best thing to do to just like get it to calm down for a minute, just simply take, go to court, file the restraining order. They'll be served.

It will be fantastic. It just be so great. Oh, it'll be so great if everyone started doing that. Let's just do it. Pat Anderson. Yes. This is from Samantha Bander. She has filed a restraining order, but she works for me.

Well, you're not allowed to talk to her anymore. I mean, you actually can't go to the office if she's there. It's my office. God damn it. Well, it was. What do you mean it was? You can, you can sit in the parking lot. Of my office?

Yeah. Well, that's, that's a hundred feet. Otherwise I'm in violation of. Yeah. That's right. She pulled a really good one on me. It's a really good move. She's pulled.

Okay. So her boss immediately fires her, obviously. I was like, Oh, what the fuck? He fires her. That's the best. Even if you're just going to quit or, or whatever, you're done. That's how you should get just file. Just it's the best way to get fired.

It's the best way. There's never a better way. It's just, it's going to take a little bit of time, but if you have a month of wiggle room where you're like, I'm going to need that. You can probably get it done. Yeah. So it takes a couple months,

but she gets another job at a legal aid clinic at Texas Southern University Law School in Houston. She does not make much money. She has barely any money, but she could still work on the prisoner's cases. But she, she, she still can't speak to them. That's still not, that hasn't been cleared up. Now the prisoners are being punished for this.

Sure. They're being moved between solitary and segregated isolation and prison officials tried to get one to sign papers accusing Francis of inciting violence. Man. Jesus Christ. And Francis. Like it's, it takes a lot of work and a lot of time

to get things to the point where there's nobody around who's like, Hey, does this seem terrible to anybody? That's like, it's really awful. No, it seems fine to me. It's just how we do business. I understand. But none of you are like a little earth. It's just so horrible.

Excuse me. What is it that you're hooked about? Why don't you tell me that? Well, I just, I mean, you're not giving these guys any shot. It's horrible. You know what I mean? No. Why is everyone staring at me like that?

I mean, it's really, it's shitty. It's been shitty and it's getting shittier. I'm kidding. How many peanuts we got? Oh, no. My, no. You're, you're a prisoner. You're not allowed to order me to.

Yes. I'm not okay. You can tell yourself that. I don't want this. I don't want this at all. Very weird. Francis is being watched. Like she's like, I'm being watched and she thinks her phone is bugged. Bobby Brown was, I don't know what a strip cell is, but they say he was in a strip shell.

No sheets, no pillows, no toiletries for months. Stripped of any amenities. I think that's what it means. Just completely gone. Or it's got a pole. Or it's got a pole in it. Yeah. I might have been a dance, a dance situation.

Put on hot for teacher. Here I go again. Novak is brutally beaten by building tenders, then put in solitary for weeks for beating up the building. They beat him up and then they charge him with beating them. Absolutely. Yeah. That's like when the cops, like eight cops tackle one guy and keeps shouting, stop resisting. Yeah.

But Fred has spent so much time in the hole now that he can barely speak. He can't put words together. Texas lawyers had been completely avoiding Francis when she got there, but now this is like an actual constitutional issue. She can't see her clients. So one very powerful attorney called the state's attorney's general office and put pressure on him and the state's attorney general office was like, ah, you have to overstep your bounds. They got her back to see your clients.

Okay. If they negotiated, if she dropped her legal action against Beto. Huh. Okay. Her legal action was to get to see your clients. Wait, did she file a restraining order against them too? Yeah. Also restraining.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Right. All right, we'll let you see your clients if you stop trying to see your clients. Do you understand how this works? So all the prisoners see this as like a victory. They're like this, this lady beat Beto. Yeah.

More like Beto. So now all these, all these prisoners that are asking for her help. Oh my God. Yeah. She's probably like a Beto. She helped Fred and Novak file a lawsuit now against the Texas, the TDC rule that bans inmates from helping each other with legal matters. Okay.

Which seems like it should be a legal layup. Still the craziest, like the fact that you have to file a lawsuit to let prisoners talk to each other. Yeah. Yeah. And file a lawsuit to allow people to understand what lawsuits are. So Francis worked with this NAACP lawyer because she has no trial experience and he flew in and they worked seven days a week on this.

A month before the trial, the steering went out on Francis's car. Okay. Okay. And she crashed, but she was okay. And she was pretty sure as was a couple of prisoners were like, that doesn't just happen. That's not just a random thing. Right. So they think the car has been messed with, but no proof.

Yeah. I'm just, in my head, I'm like, I'm just thinking like of the things you do, like cutting the brakes is so much more effective than like removing the steering. Where are the steering going out? Not great. It's not great, but I could definitely handle that more than I could handle the brakes. Could you? Yeah.

Because you could slow the car down? Yeah. I'd go to the brakes immediately. I mean, I wouldn't be ideal. You know what I mean? You'd probably be like, excuse me, you'd have to have your hand out the window, you know, doing one of the, excuse me. I would imagine this is exactly the conversation that went down between the two guys who were

deciding what to do to the car. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what we could do, we're going to go, let's cut the brakes. Let's cut the brakes. I mean, to make a case for the steering, it's comedically stronger. Is Sam over going for it? I feel like we're trying to...

I'm just saying, look, we've been talking about this for a while. I'm just... The brakes is so cliche. Okay. I'm going to give you that. It's hack. It's hack. It's a hack cut.

It's trotting. Yeah. It's trotting. So what do you see? You like see her try to turn? She goes into like a big bale of hay. I still think we should... A big hay.

I'm still not saying we don't go ahead with the plan where I piss in her washer fluid tank. That's... I got it. I was thinking of this new one. We shoot her in the head. I'm not, let's take a five. The pitching needs to be grounded again.

This is way out of... We put the gun in the engine and we say the car did it. All right. From that area of the room, the pitching will now be ceasing. So that's the end of that. And by the way, no, we're not bringing kids to work anymore. And we'll call it an automatic weapon. It's just every part of it sucks.

It's not anywhere near what we need. I love it, but I... I'm inclined to just go with the peeing in the tank. Okay, first... First you pee on me. We'll see. We'll just... All right.

That's it. No. We're not collaborating any longer. I feel like we're really getting somewhere. We're far apart. Casem. The twix does. So the trial starts in December.

The judge is a Democrat who was appointed by Kennedy. So they're like... Oh, they're like, holy shit, we found one. Yeah, no, we got... That's a good sign. Yeah. In Texas? Yeah.

So Novak testifies first and he explains he's been starved, isolated, beaten. You're an objection. Three pieces of bread a day is not starving a man. What kind of bread was that? I don't know. I thought it was rye. Whoa. Why don't you just have cable television?

So he also explains how he cut through his Achilles tendon to avoid work and to get into the hospital. Oh, my God. Why? There's surely there's lesser injuries. It was so common to cut your Achilles tendon in prison that it had a nickname. They call that heel stringing. You would heel string yourself.

I'm sorry. Oh, my God. I would just not, I would, I'd be like, my elbow is gashed. You know, I would be like, come on, what's, what's going to do it? Oh, look at this scab on my hand, you know, to carve out your fucking Achilles. Now after hearing his testimony, the judge... And it's called heel stringing? Heel stringing.

It really is terror. That is, I mean, obviously... No, it's horrifying. That's like, that's tough. Yeah. So the judge, the judge asked Novak about the time he tried to escape and said, quote, what are they supposed to do? Give you a medal.

So... The judge said that? Yeah. Now it's pretty clear at this point that this is not the favorable judge that they hoped it was. Right. Right. Okay.

And when Fred testified, the judge takes over the questioning. So he just jumps in in front of the attorney and just starts going to town. So the prison, I mean, so like the prison attorney is essentially just like, yeah, proceed. Yes. Go ahead, your honor. How about it, your honor? Well, I'm just saying, it sounds a little ridiculous. And he asked Fred, he's like, well, what should happen to you besides solitary?

Like what would that be? Quote. Is there a way to show you? This is what the judge says. Quote. How about whipping? Would that deter people from violating the regulations in prison? If you tied them to a stake in the prison yard and whip them, not breaking any bones,

not whip them unconscious, but whip them so they know they've had a whipping. What is, I mean... What year? At this moment, did Kennedy's fist just punch through the ground and just like... So Fred is his calm self. Fred is, there's a reason they said he has leadership qualities. This doesn't get to him. And he very calmly explains how solitary just breeds anger and therefore more crime.

Anger does not, as you said before, are they trying to help these people or not? He says, it's the opposite. The judge is not having it. Quote. The law did not give you the power to make the regulations. You are just an uneducated young man with an eighth grade education. The law puts power to regulate the prisons in expert's hands like Dr. Beto. Why don't you recognize that's what the people of Texas want to do and obey its regulations,

even though you disagree with them? Sure. Yeah. Okay. Great counterpoint. Counterpoint. Great counterpoint. Yeah.

Counterpoint. Shut the fuck up. Yeah. But we get to do what we want. What we want to do. Shut it. Fred doesn't back down. I mean, the judge knows that this is being recorded, right?

Like he's aware that this is... I mean, he has to know. He's a judge. He knows how this works. Fred doesn't back down. He explains his beliefs, quote, he is under the obligation of the law just like I am. You know, Fred basically kicked ass on the stand. He was very calm and he's just like, no, this is not constitutional.

What's happening to us? It's violating my constitutional rights, even though you say you can... Where did you get the Constitution? Put him in the hole. That's it, whole time. I got a hole here in the court. I got a portable hole. So Beto takes the stand and the judge asks why prisoners shouldn't be helping other prisoners

with legal stuff. Okay. Quote. Oh, I can't wait. He could develop an unconscionable control over other inmates by setting himself up as a lawyer. There are two types of prisons, those the convicts run and those the administration run. I live in mortal fear of a convict run prison.

He has a convict run prison, it's what his prison is, it's a convict run prison. So by design, by the way, the level of total paranoia that he... He's just like, well, what we're worried about is there'll be a me. We fear a me. I mean, this is a class thing, this is a race thing, right? This is the black people are not allowed to treat me as an equal or even slightly look me in the eye and show any sort of humanity. And as are the poor white guy, that's all this is.

This is you are at your level. And even looking them in the eye and saying, I don't care which seat I sit on, that is to them. And subordination. Just been egregious. Well, as well as it's just like, you know, I mean, if you have no check, then this is what happens. You just get total evil.

So trial ends, now, he hasn't reached his decision yet, it's going to be one of those long weeks. All right, now it's time for the judge's closing argument. I'm going to give one two. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you've seen an absolute. I saw a trail of motherfuckers coming through here. All right. So after the trial, they're waiting for the judge's ruling and what a, oh, imagine what

to wonder which way he'll lead. The president of the Texas Southern University tells the law school president to fire Francis because the university is going to lose funding. So basically, after the trial, Beto is so mad that he calls around to every rich guy he knows and he says, tell him you're not going to give funding and to fire this woman. So Fred's put in isolation and he's denied all privileges. A couple of months later, he gets his hand on a pen and he writes a class action lawsuit against the state of Texas on toilet paper.

Oh my God, very fitting. I mean, amazing. Yeah. And he accuses the state of punishing him for trying to practice this religion. And then the toilet paper is smuggled out and Francis files it in a district court on the toilet paper. The toilet paper is filed in the court. This is an ass action lawsuit.

That's amazing to be like, uh, sorry, what is this? If this is, there's been an injunction of justice, sir. We must, uh, it's, this is a file toilet paper. Yes, it is. It's quilted northern. It is very soft. It's very soft. It's too ply.

It's shocking that they give it to the prisoners, but, um, you'll notice there, there's little ridges, but he still is able to write on, on a lot of it, but it's, it's fantastic. And the, the role, the roles last longer than you would think too, because it is quilted. Now I'm, I'm a very difficult time right now because I would like to file this, but I also need to make a boom, a please, please, please, please file that before there's toilet paper. You can, I'll get you some ones without a class action lawsuit written on them. I just realized the toilet, I thought the first time I read this, I was like, he wrote on toilet paper and then I just realized the toilet paper is so bad that you can write

on it. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't put that together. It's like a piece of paper. Yeah. It's, it's that type of toilet paper where you're like, I think it's tissue paper where you're like, I can see through it very clearly.

It's just almost like a deck window. Like it's like a, you know what I mean? It's like frosted. It's like frosted glass. God. Yeah. It's like a shower after a shower. So the judge rules in October and he says, because the TDC had hired one attorney for

all 14,000 inmates in the state, they did not have the right to help each other because they were already represented. I don't understand. One more time. So this whole thing, it's like, can they talk to each other and legally help each other? Right. And he says, no, they can't legally help each other in prison because they have representation because the state of Texas has hired one lawyer to represent 14,000 inmates.

Okay. So. Well, it's starting to feel like it's the games tilted. And he says in his ruling without solitary, the entire Texas prison system would fall apart. I just quote, it is clear to the court from the evidence that the Texas Department of Corrections is an outstanding institution in every respect. The court is further convinced that Dr. George Beto, director is a fair, kind and just man

and an excellent administrator. We refuse to believe that Adolf Hitler is anything more than a compassionate speaker with some outlandish plans. Oh, man. And a lot of that is clearly just based on fear, like because of his power. I mean, power, you know. It's fear. So this is just good old boy stuff.

This is just good old boys back in good old boys. No, there's all of this. And we still have tons of these things where they're like totally obvious and you're not allowed to even mention them. Otherwise, people go to your Instagram and tell, sorry, go ahead. The toilet paper suit is dismissed on the grounds that the right to religious freedom was up to the prison. So the right to religious freedom.

It's up to the, I mean, honestly, listen to that ruling. The right to religious freedom. So guess what? It's denied religious freedom. It's not religious freedom. So Novak is now just a complete mess. He can no longer speak. His heartbeat becomes irregular.

Oh, cool. He breaks out and rashes. He starts spitting up blood. He's in so much pain he can't eat. The guards refuse to give him pain medicine. Cool. When the prison psychiatrist makes his rounds, he sees Novak and he is horrified and immediately grabs a phone and says, quote, I am not bullshitting, get an ambulance out here right now.

This man is dying. Robert Novak dies the day after Christmas. Wow. When Francis goes to the prison, she's told to find a notary and proven writing that she is a lawyer. She's, wait, they want her, they want notarized proof that she's a lawyer? Yeah, the Texas prison. Okay.

All right. Well, I mean, she shows him her Texas bar card and they're like, yeah, no, it's not. No, we're going to need a notary to be a part of the notary. Get another notary. It's really, notary is one of those jobs where it seems so respectable, but then you're like, you got like, oh, when you, when you find to see it, I could be a part of the notary. You know what I mean?

I could be a notary. It's really crazy. You just needed like a little time in a stamp and I'm not downplaying like notaries. I mean, thank God bless you. But I mean, the idea that like anything is hinging upon, get the notary. Okay. Okay, so on other visits, when she goes back, they say the clients are working at the time or they've been in a fight and they're not available.

They just keep making. We're trying to kill them. So give us a little bit. We took his tongue out. It's going to be a little while now. They also had sent her, she'd go into meat and they'd send in the wrong prisoner to meet with her. They're just, it's just the bullshit that you'd expect, right?

He's swolling right now. He can't. He can't because he's swolling for no apparent reason. He's so big. He's got a case of the swells. He's like a bullfrog. We don't know what his problem is. Must be the humidity.

So she keeps the record of all this shit. Now Bear Tracks McAdams had been moved to another prison. So the new warden is not better. Bear punishments continue. Fred goes to the hole for putting on his shoes in the hallway. Oh my Lord. Now that time. My God.

That time the warden came down and grabbed Fred by the neck and slammed him against the wall and said, your lawyers shouldn't speak my name or I'll send you out in a pine box. Quote, somebody should have killed you a long time ago. Okay. So clearly we've got a rational hierarchy. I mean, obviously, just, I mean, yeah, just crazy. So Francis, her clients now start turning against her. Prison authorities said if they fired her as their lawyer, they'd be treated better.

And clients are refusing to see her. Letters start arriving. They're firing her and some of the letters attack her. Quote, Ms. Gillette, I'm beginning to catch on to a few things. Number one is that you have a personal grudge against the TDC and are using a few prisoners to help you get your foot in the door. If you have any care or compassion for your clients, prove it to them by not returning and stirring them up.

Terrible. Now, a prisoner named Donald Locke, who she does not represent, accuses Francis of ordering him to be beaten in prison three times. Uh-huh. Right. Yeah, because we all know how much they were listening to her. So he then says he wants her kicked out of the Texas bar and then a building tender files a conspiracy suit against Francis and all of her clients.

He says they were trying to start a prison revolt. And then a second building tender files the exact same suit. So then Locke files a third suit. And then after filing the suit, Locke is promoted to trustee, which is just below the building tender. Right? You're a lieutenant or whatever. Okay.

Okay. Newspapers go crazy with the story. Houston Chronicle quote, inmate claims woman lawyer is an agitator. It's so easy. It really is crazy because it is so easy to do this over and over again. It doesn't take much. It's just like you just need to spark a bullshit and the media is tender. Yeah.

Immediate media. And then the people are just able to be persuaded by bullshit so consistently and easily. You know, they say she's teaching revolutionary ideas and threatening prison security. Yeah. I mean, she's teaching about rights. Yeah. That is revolutionary. It is.

It's absolutely like insane. But she has no state power so these suits aren't based in law. Like it's not a thing. The suits are just completely ridiculous and frivolous. They don't make sense. Yes. These aren't things she has the power to do. Right.

It's scandalous and it's a headline and it's annoying and it's, you know, talking points. And the judge it comes in front of doesn't care. He puts all the suits together and he lets them continue. If successful, this is going to drive her out of Texas. And now around this time, riots are happening all over the U.S. in prisons more and more and more. They're just rapidly increasing. And then on September 9th, Attica, the New York prison riot happens five days, 42 hostages

over 40 die, including 10 guards and employees. Beto was the main speaker at a governor's conference while Attica was going on. And he said Attica was what happened when you let the convicts run the prisons. It really, I mean, it is so, you know what I mean? It's just like, it is just the classic where like, it's like you, you're doing, it's you. You're talking about you and you're trying to use what you do to scare everybody. Yeah. I mean, that, you know, we see it all the time now, but that thing where like you're doing

the bad thing and then you blame the others who are essentially the victims of the thing you're doing. Yeah. So many people go, that's right. I know. It's just, it's so easy. Like at least it used to be like complicated. Yeah.

Now you're just are literally like, you did it. He did it. He did it. He did it. Yeah. So after Attica, he's, Beto's got whatever ammo or, you know, so he bars Francis again from going to the prisons. He's like, she's the trouble.

You don't want another Attica? So she now represents 50 prisoners and they're all denied the right to a lawyer. Obviously, this is a massive, you know, just, this is crazy that this happened. So Fred immediately, as soon as she's barred. He's like, I'm in fucking danger and two days later, a building tender dragged him out of his cell and beat him with a blackjack quote, no fucking greaser is going to take over my cell block. He was in the hospital for 12 days.

Then he was put in the hole for beating up the building tender who beat him up. And now, what's it called now when they have a good behavior, right? In Texas this time, it was called, it was called good boy time. Sure. Right. Well, by the way, that's also the bar that I'm opening. I'm opening a bar called that. Good boy time.

Good boy. Come on. So he, for this, for this attack, which he didn't do, he was beaten up, he lost all his good boy time. Well, I mean, look, it's, it's bad. It's obviously bad. I just wish the name wasn't so childish. Oh, no, it's crazy.

It's like, are we having, you mean I can't play with Tonka? No Tonka. No Tonka today. You're no more good boy time for you. How's my Tonka truck was going to go get the concrete and make a fake? Not today. It's not. Your good boy time's gone.

I want my good boy time. No. So he's going to lose seven years. Now, so this is going to keep, I mean, it's going to keep in jail for a long, long time. But now really big lawyers are like, okay, let's go. Right. This is too much. It's a clear attack on constitutional rights.

So they, they pressure Beto and he gives in again. Now instead of the ban, Beto sends two dozen of Francis's clients to the win unit. So this is another prison. And it is known as the broke dick farm by other prisoners because that's where prisoners with mental health problems were sent. Dick farm. I'm horrified. What does that?

I don't want to know any more about it. They came up with a fun name. The broke dick farm. So there's a new warden in charge. Are they breaking dicks? They're not actually breaking dicks. So they're just saying you don't work anymore. Like your, your stuff, your brain doesn't work, your dick, it doesn't work.

Okay. Nothing's functioning is what they're saying. Sure. So a new warden had been put in charge there. His name was Bear Tracks McAdams. It's weird because I feel like that name rings a bell for some reason in a bad way. That velvet voice chairup. This is how bad the Texas prison system is.

Oh my Lord. When he becomes warden of a new prison, he brings all of his building tenders with him from his old prison. That is so strange. So you have your posse of prisoners that are just like movable? They're your enforcers. Yeah. No, you've got.

And he knows he can trust them to beat up the other prisoners and do what he's done. It's terrible. All because everybody fears being the lowest tier. Yeah. And so now all of these 24 guys that are all Francis's clients, they're put together in the B-wing and they are called by the prison or whoever, the Eight Ho Works Squad. I don't know why. Sure.

They were kept away from all the other inmates, so they're totally isolated in the prison. They get no recreation time. They work six days a week at the very worst jobs that are in the prison. They also drug them. So doctors are prescribing large amounts of psychoactive drugs like Thorazine. That's why they were sent. That's why they were sent to the broke. That's why they sent the mental health prisoners there.

And so they're like, let's just say these guys all have mental health issues and drug them up. They also put them together mixing the races, which if anybody has ever seen anything about American prisons, it's a big issue. So it's essentially like there's a nightmare fight that's going to start here. You just don't do that. That's a huge issue. So they figured the prisoners are going to tear each other apart.

Better figured this would keep them from spreading their troubles away. Corrupted thoughts. Yeah. The other prisoners, right? They're like, well, let's isolate them so they won't be able to. And then we'll mix the races and they'll fuck each other up. But what he ended up creating was something called solidarity. These guys were all Francis's clients.

And that means they all became very familiar with the law over time. They were all writ writers in prison. Francis had been showing them, teaching them how to work the legal system. And now they were put together and they were able to share their knowledge with each other. That is so, it's, I mean, it's all horrible, but it's so great that like Beto's plan is so dumb. Yeah. So dumb.

Just to be like, we'll get them all together and they'll fight. It's like your whole thing has been don't let them talk to each other. But he doesn't, again, he doesn't treat them like human beings, so he doesn't see them as human beings. Right. So he doesn't see that solidarity could occur. Right. Right.

A historian, quote, in effect, the Eight Ho Squad would become one of the most successful prisoners, rights law firms in the country. Were ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, and ho. The law firm of. He basically created a prisoner legal dream team. Right. Right. James.

It doesn't seem like there's a ton of bruises on your boys. What have you been doing? And Francis told them to stop taking the drugs and so James Griggs knew the rules and regulations of other institutions. Lawrence Pope was a white ex banker who had organizational skills and a great memory. They had a trained nurse, Alvin Slayton, who took care of their wounds and illnesses when they got roughed up. David Rees would take any physical punishment that the prison inflicted so he would step

up and take the beatings to help the other guys. There's so far the worst job I've heard of like, all right, we've got a nurse, we've got a banker, we've got the punching bag. Fred had been working with Francis so long that he could, he just knew her legal mind. So he would just quote her legal reasoning when anybody talked about it. Is Fred in that group or not? Yeah. Fred's in there.

Okay. Eight Ho inmate, Guadalupe, Horado. It was the worst thing that Beto could have done. We got all the best brains together. In two weeks, the Eight Ho squad was drafting a lawsuit and this time they were going to sue Beto personally for denying them their constitutional rights. Oh my God, oh my God, to be a fly on the wall when that lawsuit comes through. Just imagining that they're beating the snot out of each other for two weeks, but in reality

they've just like come up with the best lawsuit possible. Yeah. And Francis was going to be a plaintiff also. Now around Christmas, Robert Novak's case appeal was heard. It's interesting to me that since he was already dead they let it go forward, but it went forward. So the judge's decision was thrown out and it was ruled the TDC failed to provide prisoners with legal services and so they shouldn't be punished for helping each other legally.

Wow. Okay. On top of that, they said any good time lost because of the result should be restored. Good boy. Good boy time. Right. Because he said good time and I'm afraid that that's just totally different. Sorry, I was thinking of the show good times.

Well, just be a little more aware next time because we've got a great term and let's not squander it. So basically the judge at some point had to sort of be like, well, and unfortunately when it comes to good boy time, because you had taken away a tremendous amount of the good boy time, the only way I see fit is to not only restore the GBT, but for the good boy time to also be calculated and reimbursed so that the potentially we couldn't have up to three to four days. We could have good boy days that could be so much good.

Hold on. There could be so much good boy time built up. I'll call it rollover minutes, which makes no sense now, but maybe in the future will. But it's good boy time and the good boy time will then be made up. So you potentially look at a four to five days of uninterrupted good boy time. The good boy time will be reinstated and then we'll do bad boy time in my chambers. But the restoration of good boy time meant was Fred Cruz was just now months away from getting out.

Wow. And in 1972, the Francis stirring up a revolution case would see the court, right? Right. The case is not a case. Yeah. And the case against Beto that they were suing him back would also be heard. Oh, my God. So it's pretty much we are potentially on the precipice of a one, two.

Yeah, it's it's all coming to a head like this is it. All right. And Francis is, you know, she's barely making enough money to pay food and ranch to make it a hundred and ninety bucks a month. She has no money saved. So she can't afford to do any of this. So six Houston ACLU lawyers decide to jump in and help defend her against the building tender suits.

Good. OK. So the judge then picks. I don't know exactly how this happens legally, but the judge picks the lawyers to represent the building tenders as plaintiffs. That's really weird because of right. Like it's very yes, because obviously, you know, as you've we've even heard in this story, there's some predisposition on some of this stuff.

So you could either stack it or you could, you know, well, what he anchor it, he he picks very powerful big lawyers, right? And the judge is going to hear both cases. So he's going to hear the the building tenders case against Francis first and then the prison case completely forget about it and then the other case. So on March 20, 1972, the Supreme Court ruled on Fred's toilet paper case. So right, that that case got dismissed by Texas courts and then made its way all the way up to the Supreme Court with the most important toilet paper ever.

This may be. Yes. And they still think it's the only case that has been submitted on toilet paper. I mean, it's just even hearing it is very. But anyway, the Supreme Court decides that Texas has discriminated against him and denied his right to pursue his religion. And this is really the idea of even wiping your ass with this to us seems disgraceful. I mean, it's basically rice paper.

It's really. Wait, but all that means is that Texas courts now have to hear the case. Right. Right. Right. So Fred, Fred is released from prison. Wow. He fucking gets out and their Fred and Francis relationship had always been very professional,

but it had been pretty obvious that they really liked each other. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. A month after getting out, they drove to Mexico and got married. Wow. Wow. That's great.

Now, the, the ACL lawyers are like, what the fuck? The trial was the next week and that marriage was huge news. I mean, it is a quite a bold step. The Houston Chronicle headline, quote, woman lawyer, 61, Weds Xcon 32. I mean, a name would be nice, but sure, woman lawyer, like it's a superhero. Woman lawyer. You know, all the stories point out that she's a law school grad and he's a dropout in the eighth grade.

And sure, Francis has to explain to everyone like they never talked about their feelings until he was out and, you know, but this didn't have, it just so what. But the ACL lawyers were like, fuck, did, did we get taken in by someone here? But anyway, it goes forward. Right. Trial starts. One of the building tenders was released from prison on the second day of the trial. So what are the two guys that's filed the suit?

It's probably payoff for him filing suit. But as soon as they let him out, he's like, okay, bye. And he just, he just takes off. He doesn't come back to the trial. He's like, perfect. See ya. Perfect. Good.

Good. Okay. I mean, I get it. I get it. But I mean, still, it would be nice. They should have held them till after the trial. I would say that's fair. Sure.

Yeah. So the other, the other tenor locker still, their cases are still proceeding and they claim Francis with Fred had planned to take over the prison like what, who gives a shit? Like what does that even mean? Yeah. Why did two prisoners get to sue? Yeah. They're crazy.

Yeah. It's the craziest lawsuit ever. Yeah. The prisoners where they were going to take over the prison, maybe. So other building tenders testified and they all lie. They say Francis told them riots like Attica were necessary. One testified that Francis had told him to kill another prisoner. She told me she started Attica.

She, this is the, this woman is the scariest fucking woman I ever seen. She claimed Titanic to me. She said that she... Titanic. She killed the Titanic. She said that she had, she, she punctured it. And then... Treat it with her fist.

Yeah. But she, yeah. She punched right a hole into the Titanic. And then she admitted to us that she loved it. And she only regret was that more people didn't die on that day. You don't know what this is. She's going to, she's going to do 9-11. Yeah.

We don't even know, but she keeps saying... Yeah. It's... And over. Over. Over. Those are her words. She made Hitler.

She also did admit to us that she created Hitler. Yeah. Um, that it was, he was a baby and then she kept him in a cardboard box in a basement with holes poked in it and just shouted rude stuff at him. Yeah. And, and then wouldn't let him grow a normal mustache, made him have a little, she wouldn't let the hair go past the nostril edges. That made him mad.

And it, well, I mean, it looked ridiculous at the time. Yeah. But that's all her. Yeah. That's her, obviously. Anyway, I'm done. I don't have any other testimony. Yeah.

She, but she is evil and she, she shot, she shot me with lasers from her. Yeah. I saw that. From her eyes and her hands. She is. So in closing, uh, what we are saying is she's an evil, she's evil. Bad. Bad.

Can we have some water? No, I'm, I'm, I'm in, uh, what am I in jail for? I killed 74 people. She did it though. Before I met her. She scares me. She did it. Now Bear Tracks McAdams testified and he said Francis tried to rile the inmates up quote

quote. After one or two visits, there was more work, stoppage, more fights, more tension, more men in solitary. And then she, she got more men put in solitary. She did it. Bear Tracks bought pictures to show the judge, to show how much prisons had improved under Beto. Okay.

I mean, yeah, I really, really hard. Yeah. I mean, that they tell the full story for sure. So it's great about him. Francis took the stand in the second week. It was pretty obvious the second she stepped on the stand. Hold on. Hold on.

Jose's man. Hold on. Fucking this guy. Sorry. Go ahead. Okay. So, uh, he brings, he shows the pictures, but the second she takes a stand and sits down and starts talking, it's, it's obvious that calling her a revolutionary mastermind, an

orange killer. It's just fucking absurd. It's absurd. She's a nice old, older lady. Like, oh God, don't look into her eyeballs. That's what she can move your brain. There's also zero evidence that she has done anything. There's no evidence of anything, you don't need evidence to prove things.

Now Fred is having a very hard time outside. Sometime into the trial, he brought, he bought a bottle of booze and he got drunk and then he missed the trial that day and that night he ended up in hospital because he was having a hard time breathing. So he probably, probably took heroin. So when it was time for Fred, but again, like that would, that's something that like, you know, the optics of that obviously are not good. But when you hear the depth of the abuse, you can, you know, there's no, yeah, I mean,

you're not allowed to really be like, whoa, he likes drugs. Like, well, his life had been taken away from him. When it was time for Francis to put on her defense, she presented all the shit the prisons had been up to. It went on for a month. She put on a month barrage. It's just prisoners and ex-prisoners, one after the other, testifying over brutality. Many of them are pointing the finger at Bear Track McAdams saying he was violent, he would

start most things. Sir, but the pictures. One described how one time three inmates were shot by Bear Tracks while they were escaping and then he laid them out as they bled in front of the dining hall, quote, we had to walk through the blood to get to the dining room. Wow. Another explained that he had also cut his Achilles tendon. He, like I said, Bear Tracks did?

No, no, another prisoner. Oh, then he. Another prisoner cut his Achilles tendon, like it's just after a lot of witnesses, Donald Locke asked the defense to put him back on the stand. So this guy who filed the lawsuit and got turned into a trustee has been watching a month of prisoners and ex-prisoners testify and is just like, and he takes the stand and he testified that prison officials said if he brought the suit against Francis, he'd be taken care of.

Wow. That's your killer. He started, quote, living the good life. He could order around low level guards and say he went to solitary. So the whole thing is being flipped on its fucking head, right? Yeah. He's now saying, like, yeah, I brought the suit, but they, they were the prisoners run the prison and this is how bad it is.

And this is, and he explained how violent the prison was and how bad Beto and Bear Tracks McAdams were. And he also said that he was now going to die. They were going to kill him. And so the judge had him taken into protective custody and had him put in a jail, a city jail that was outside the prison system. Okay. Beto went up and took the stand.

He denies everything. He says, building tenders have no power. Quote, I think generally the inmates regard building tenders as porters, janitors and the like. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. That's, but clear. So one thing's been made clear, it's just, they're so bad at lying.

Yeah. It's like, yeah, they're just like complete deflections. Like they're not like nuanced, like rationales. They're just like, no, there's no rationale. Yeah. I get to say whatever I want and then I walk away. Yeah. So an ACLU lawyer went up and just fucking obliterated Beto.

Like he was just, he looked like a fucking moron asshole monster when it was over. The record show that one building tender had set an inmate on fire and sexually assaulted a bunch of others. And the lawyer asked Beto, if this was the type of guy who was a building tender, and Beto said, quote, you are not recognizing that people can change? I mean, and then did he explode? Did just five mounds of horse shit come out of him? And then he admitted that he got Francis fired.

Okay. Now, this trial did not go great for Beto. One plaintiff had bailed, another had testified for the defense. So the judge says, quote, I've never seen a case like this before. For the past six weeks, I have felt that I lived on another planet, literally. He ruled there was no conspiracy and that the countersuit was next with the same judge hearing that case. So he's like, everything we heard the case against Francis is fucking bullshit.

Let's start the next case. Okay. Okay. I like it. And it's the same judge hearing the same case. So he's already heard everything, right? Yeah, he's already heard it all. He's just been living on another planet for six weeks.

And Francis and Fred in the, the, the Eastly one, her clients, Eastly one, Beto had infringed on Francis and her clients rights. And the case, this case is unprecedented. No prisoner in Texas had ever won a lawsuit against the head of the Department of Corrections. Wow. And Beto was forced to pay Francis and her clients $10,000 and $28,000 illegal fees. But more than that, his reputation was obliterated, publicly humiliated. He retired a month later and the eight hoe squad felt completely victorious.

They took down the most powerful man in the Texas prison system, one of the most powerful men in the state. It's just, it's the hearing, like retirement is just such a not punishment, but it still is insurmountable victory. He, you know, that's right. He should be in jail. Yeah. Bear tracks should be, they should all be in prison.

And that's, that's the thing of like, if you want to correct this stuff, these people all need to go to jail today. Back then they need to go, they need to be punished severely, but that's not our system. So, but essentially it was a shot across the bow of prisons across the country. Francis kept working for prisoners for another 10 years. Her and Fred moved to Chicago. She tried to get him, him admitted to Harvard Law School, but that was declined. Eventually Fred started using drugs again and she tried to stick by him.

She paid for rehabs, but they ended up getting divorced in 1978. He remarried and had a daughter who he named Francis. Fred Cruz died of a drug overdose. I wonder who his new wife was like, his new wife was like, who's Francis? Like I just have my old room, I used to play volleyball with him. It's a guy, Francis. Fred Cruz died of a drug overdose in 1987 at 47. It was only the beginning for the Texas Department of Corrections.

A massive class action suit was next and in December, 1980, a judge ruled the prison system was operating in a fundamentally unconstitutional manner. Francis died in 1994. She was 84. So you know, her and Fred are two fucking badasses. Unfortunately, Fred had his demons, his state mandated demons, but look, he did. He and Francis did something incredible. You know, there was, it's a great, this is a great story in the main sources, the love

story that upended the Texas prison system by Ethan Waters and that's in Texas monthly. Pretty crazy fucking story. But you know, it just shows what you have to fight to get, just basic rights. I mean, that's all we're talking about, right? Change. Change in any metric. Yeah. The amount you have to just, I mean, a guy got killed, right?

A prisoner got killed. And if you live, it's cost you, I mean, we've seen that a lot, you know, it costs, it does cost you your life in many ways. And if you survive it, it's, you know, that level of trauma and abuse, it's, you know, I don't know. It's not, I don't think it's not possible to forget it, you know. And you know, prisoners all over the country go on strike all the time because there's still just massive brutality.

It's still, there's no slaves, I mean, our constitution says they can be slaves. It's not like that. No, they shifted it. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like that, but it's like, you know, our country has found ways to further step on rights to create more slaves. And that is, that's what, and once you're in the system, you know, yeah, I mean, how,

you know, how you get out of that, they've made it harder and harder. Even if you're not in prison, you know, you're, they make it so that it's, your life is very difficult. Kick out a job, you can't, you can't vote, you can't, whatever. Yeah. All right, gang. Well, we've had a lot of fun. You've had a lot of fun.

This has been the Dala podcast. Keep it at light since 1987. This for Dave Anthony, this is Garrett Reynolds. We still are sighted cars. I signed one about a week and a half ago, Dave. And keep it fun, keep it light, having fun, things are fine. Enjoy yourself and listen to this new song, Dave, we're going to leave with a song today. It's a little regular new song from Cheryl Crow called Everything's All Right.

Where does Sierra get into reggae, but that's what she's done. Let's go ahead and play it. All righty. Goodbye, gang. Fuck.